Novel adaptations into a film are quite a common practice seen these days. Cardwell (11) defines the term adaption as the process of adapting one text into another text. It is a process of modifying a thing so as to suit new condition. Many beautiful and award winning novels have been adapted in the films periodically by the Hollywood directors. It is a question of debate whether the original one is better or the adapted version is better. Among these several novels, one famous novel and the film adaptation is The Color Purple. A comparative analysis is done between the book and its adaptation in this essay. Due to the time limit a movie is not able to express each and every minor detail of the book. As said by Michael Hastings, “Film is visual brevity If the novel is a poem, the film is a telegram.” Hence the story is altered a bit, considering the time limit and the amount of violence present in the colour Purple book. Yet both the book and its adaptation convey the core emotions and problems faced by the women in the book.
The adaption of the book The Color Purple written by Alice Walker, into a movie of the same name is one of the successful adaptations; though there are several differences between the novel and the film. The movie of the same name The Color Purple is directed by director Steven Spielberg and stars Whoopi Goldberg as Celie Harris Johnson, Danny Glover as Albert Johnson, Oprah Winfrey as Sofia Johnson and Margaret Avery as Shug Avery. Remaining fairly faithful to the plot of the book, the film follows the life of a common African-American woman in the 1900s.Both the movie and the film explore the racism, sexism, domestic violence and poverty faced by the African American women in the early 20th century. They also show the way different African women dealt with these things in their own way; some fought it and found a way out while some suffered silently and then slowly transformed into strong women. Hence this essay focuses on the different attitudes shown by different women towards life and its problems.
The book starts with Celie, a 14 year old young girl, writing a letter to God, describing the traumatic events taking place in her life. In the beginning itself the novel starts with a shocking incident and in a dark shade. At 14, Celie had been raped by her father, Alphonso, thus resulting in pregnancy and the birth of two children. Hence the letters that she writes to God can be thought of as an outlet of the grief and injustice that she was facing. The beginning of the film represents a very happy tone. The innocent activities of the teenage girls are shown in the film.
The children Celie has with her step father Alphonso mysteriously disappear, and her mother is on her deathbed. While going through all of this, she is left to protect her little sister Nettie from her father, who tries to sexually advance on Nettie. Here the majority of the traumas experienced by Celie are due to the status of African American women in the 20th century American society. They were merely treated as objects and were never considered to be humans having feelings; they were physically as well as mentally abused by the society. Being traumatized in this way since her young age, Celie chooses the path of succumbing to the pressure and injustice of the society.
After that she is married off to a widower having named Albert or Mister by her father. Her husband, Mister too ill-treats her. Apart from treating her like an object and a maid he also sexually and mentally abuses her by raping and beating her on several occasions. Hence Celie finds herself in an unhappy marriage, where she has to take care of Mister’s four children and also has to suffer mental and physical trauma. She is subjected to this injustice just because she is a woman. Her husband just like her father treats her as a mere object, which is to be used and thrown away. As she had lost her voice, she is not able to stand up against the injustice done to her. She is a young innocent child at heart, who, right since her childhood, has been made to feel that being a woman is a crime and that she should always stay under the command of her husband. Hence the domination of the male society over women is quite clear with the way Celie is treated by her husband. The male chauvinism and the ill-treatment given to women as shown both in the movie an in the novel is not just the social phenomenon of African community, but it is universal and in almost every culture of the world, it was happening in 20th century.
When Nettie comes to stay with Celie and her husband, things start to get better for Celie. She finally finds someone whom she can share her sorrows and thoughts to; someone who acts like a pillar in her disturbing life. Other than offering her mental support, Nettie also helps her out in household chores. But the most important thing that Nettie introduces to the uneducated Celie is of course education. Although literacy and education are two different things, if given by the right person to the right student, they can go hand in hand. Hence Celie finally starts finding some meaning to her life and slowly starts coming out of the trauma of her life. However this happiness and support is short- lived. When Nettie refuses to entertain the sexual advances made on her by Mister, he literally throws her out of the house like a non-living thing. Celie begs and protests but to no avail. Again she descends into the darkness of her unhappy married life. Here we can see that being educated was not often considered as a human right of every individual, be it a man or a woman of any race. Used as a toy by both her father and husband, Celie never had a chance to taste the sweet fruit of freedom. She was never given a chance to enlighten and discover herself. She was always misused. Nettie, being a strong, independent and outspoken woman was helping her oppose the injustice inflicted upon her. Here we understand that because being under the constant protection of Celie, Nettie seldom faced mental and physical abuse and fortunately had a chance to educate herself. Thus she became an independent and strong-willed woman.
The adaptation of any novel into movie is a challenging task. Still converting words or text into visual form has always been limitations. After watching the movie, even Walker states that the movie cannot be a book and difference will always be there. One of the differences is the narration. The narration of both the film and the movie is done from the point of view of Celie. Though the film tries to be honest with the narrative technique of the book, somewhere the depth of narration in the movie lacks the depth. The novel gives a deeper insight to the narrative technique.
The film and the novel use different technique and structure. Celie, in the novel is shown writing letters to God and to her sister. Thus the role of God is very prominent in the novel. This connection of Celie with God helps to develop the story further. But in the film, God has not been given that much importance. It is just mentioned that Celie has a faith in God. Her feeling, emotions, thoughts and her overall personality is revealed through these letters. But in the movie, this part is completely omitted. The readers come to know her transformation from a meek, submissive lady to a strong, assertive woman through the letters of Celie. One more important thing as far as the differences are concerned, is the relationship between Celie and Shug. The relationship is clear and this relationship has been focused in the book which we do not find in the film. Spielberg in the movie has shown that the relationship develops between the two women but he is not succeeded to maintain the depth of that relationship which is there in the novel.
The difference is also found regarding the letters Celie writes to God. Her letters to God and to her sister Nettie about her abusive husband tell the readers about the oppression and abuse she experiences, and her strength to face the adversities of her life. In the film, the same theme has been taken by Spielberg but he has not used the letter format. Instead he has used the powerful scenes. One of the memorable scene in the movie is the conversation between Celie and her husband Albert, when Celie is about to leave him and going with Shug and Memphis. The scene contains direct quote from the book. "I'm pore, I'm black, I may be ugly and can't cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I'm here" (Walker 207).
The film and the novel are based on the patriarchal society of black community where female molestation is quite common. The sexuality has also been portrayed in a different ways in the film and the novel. For example Walker is quite open to express the lesbian relationship between Celie and Shug. The kiss shared by Celie and Shug is very significant. The novel clearly mentions that Celie and Shug were lesbians. But in the film Spielberg is very ambiguous in portraying lesbian relationship between these two ladies. Some of the hints of lesbian relationship have been given in the movie but they are not clear.
There is a difference between the film and the novel regarding Nettie’s experience in Africa which has been depicted in detail in the novel. That detailing has not come in the film adaptation.
Spielberg has been successful in including the same set of the major characters from the novel to the film. The characters of Shug and Celie have been successfully portrayed by Spielberg in the film. He has followed the exact way of representation of characters as it is there in the novel. Whoopi Goldberg has played the role of Celie. She has literary pushed herself into the character of Celie. While watching the movie, we strongly feel that she has given full justice to the character of Celie which was expected to Walker in the novel. Whoopi uses her sly winks, secretive smiles and stifled laughter.
The portrayal of Ceile as a rustic girl is similar both in the film and the novel. The same setting of rural Georgia of 20th century is found in the novel and the film. Celie’s story is depicted among the poor black community of the rural area. Spielberg has honestly followed the plot of the novel. Both the novel and film show the transitional journey of the protagonist from a submissive, meek and sexually abused woman to a strong, independent woman. One more difference can be seen is that in the novel when Shug arrives, there is violence towards Celie. It is not found in the movie.
The ending of the film is also slightly different from the novel. In the novel, it is shown that Albert, Celie’s husband is completely changed and he maintains a good relationship of friendship with Celie. In the end, while commenting on Albert, Celie says, And now it do begin to look like he got a lot of feeling behind his face" (Walker, 280). She wants to say that Albert is now not the old one. He has changed completely. He is shown enlightened in the novel. Celie forgives him. But this change in Albert is not shown in the film. In the movie, it is shown that Albert is standing somewhere in the field with his horse and Celie is embracing her family.
Both the film and the novel are emblematic. They are similar to each other in using the main symbol and that is the symbol of purple color. The purple color symbolizes womanhood with self discovery and enlightenment. The difference is that this color purple is symbolized in the novel through dialogue while in the film the purple color is presented in the form imagery. In the novel, Celie, in the beginning has no awareness of the color purple when she says, “I never truly notice nothing God make. Not a blade of corn (how it do that?) not the color purple (where it come from?) Not a little wild flowers Nothing”(Walker 197). The symbol of color purple is used by Shug to enlighten Celie when she says, I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it” (Walker 196). In the film, also the color purple is used brilliantly. When Celie gets separated from Nettie; Spielberg shows that the petals of the purple flower have spread everywhere. In the end, Celie and Nettie reunite in the farm where they are surrounded by the wild purple flowers.
One more difference can be found in the film and the novel is Celie’s economic independence. Celie became liberated from domestic violence and molestation. In the novel, Celie writes letter to Nettie in which she told her that she has opened a new business. On the contrary, in the film the use of letters is not there. Spielberg informs the audience about the financial independence of Celie through her pant store in a scene. This pant store is the symbol of Celie’s financial independence and her escape from the life of a prisoner.
The Color Purple novel is darker than its film adaptation. Moreover, the novel is more complex than the movie. Music plays very important role in the movie. The novel is dark whereas the movie is musical. Throughout the movie, the music is used to keep the film lighter than the novel. Moreover as far as characterization is concerned, the novel is deeper than the movie. Each character and their relationship with each other is portrayed in detail in the novel Color Purple.
Some minor difference between the book and the movies can be found such as in the book it is showed that Nettie runs away while in the book, it is shown that Nettie is sent away from her sister. The difference can also be found between the Nettie’s experiences in Africa. They are much more in detail than they are in the film. One small difference between the movie and the novel is the scene in which Mister drives Nettie out of his house. This scene is there in the film but it is not mentioned in the novel. In one scene of the movie, the viewers see Celie is brushing Shug’s hair and at the time of combing her hair she is singing a song. It is not found in the novel.
In the book, the writer’s imaginations can go beyond limit. It has no certain periphery. The writer has no restriction such as time or pages. He/she can flourish the imagination openly. But it seldom happens in the movie. Movie is the visual representation which is time bound. It is not possible to go deeper into the plot or the representation of the characters. Hence this drawback will always be there while adapting a novel in the movie. But the strength of movie is that it can use lot of visual effects to give justice to the book. As far as The Color Purple is concerned, it can be said that director Spielberg has almost succeeded in giving justice to the original book. Of course, some limitations are there in the film and some changes also need to do due to the need of cinema making. But overall the film can be said as the good adaption of the novel.
Work Cited
Cardwell, Sarah. Adaptation Revisited. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002. Print.
"Masterpiece Theatre | Learning Resources | Film In The Classroom". Pbs.org. Web. 2 June 2016.
Spielberg, Steven. The Color Purple. 1985.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982. Print.
